Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-03-07
INDIAN RIGHTS.
The Association Addressed by
several Eloquent Speakers.

The Association Addressed by
several Eloquent Speakers.
The Indian Rights Association met
last evening at the Congregational
Church on Third street, corner OF Hill,
with quite number of representative
people present. The meeting was first
addres ed by Rev. A. j. Wells, who said
that any effort to improve the condition
of the Indian is met by sneers and deri.
sion from those who think that dead
Indian is the best kind of an Indian.
Actual acquaintance with the Indian
disabuses the mind of the nobleness Of
the race but humanely speaking
their treatment by the white peo-
ple has not been just what
it should have been. Many unthinking
people assume that our treatment OF the
Indian has been as good as he deserved,
but the history of the question does not
show it to have been so. A few years
ago there visited Washington an Indian
maiden named bright Eyes, since mar
ried to an editor. She was the one
whom the poet Longfellow, when he met
her, said: "This is Minnehaha." In
writing to the New York press she had
said that "the only solution of the In
dian question is citizenship" That was
short sentence, but il went to the right
spot. The government has given the
Indian lands, but that is the extent of
its consideration for him. The fatal
mistake in the past has been in taking
care of him instead Of teaching
him to help himself. When the Gov
ernment gives to the Indian the right Of
citizenship the question will be solved.
The nations treatment of the Indian has
been shameful and degrading. An In.
dian cannot bring suit to right his
wrongs except through a guardian. Ur.
til short time ago an Indian was not
considered to be a man. He had no
redress under our law. If he broke a
law he was punished, but he could not
gain redress from those who injured him.
Is it strange, then. that there should be
outbreaks when there is no other means
of redress except in revenge? The best
officers of the United States have said
that the question has resolved itself into
either warfare or citizenship. After
giving numerous instances of op-
preston the speaker closed by
Swing that the whole history
of our treatment of the Indian has
been one of shame and dishonor.
Mr.. Rust, Of Pasadena, stated that he
had hardly ever heard word in favor
of the Indian on this coast. After re.
citing the history of visit to Sioux
reservation he defined the new Indian
policy to be his civilization by humane
treatment. He paid tribute to President
Cleveland by saying that he had given
the subject more thought, attention and
study than any other President ever had.
lie had signed the bill to break up the
reservation system, to give the Iudian
his own, to teach him to depend upon
himself. "We now have a law to protect
the Indians, and we should see that it is
carried out" He read history of the
Mission Indians, and asked every citizen
of Southern California to see that justice
is rendered to the few left.
+. S. Field said he could not listen to
the history of Indian wrongs without
getting ''red-hot." Someone had told
him that every treaty made by the
United States had been broken. He was
aSl0tneU VI Inc KCCOIus uuu Qli uOb tuluk h
he could afford to leave matters in that
shape to his children and to their pos.
terity. 1t was bad legacy to leave
behind. There was another side to the
question than the one which says the
iudian should be exterminated, and that
side everyone shsuld support. He had
read of an Indian in the Northwest who
murdered a maa while drunk and was
sentenced to be hunged. He was asked il
he did not want to see priest, and
said that he did not. The white
mans whisky had made him
drunk and he did not want the white
, mar's religion. Just such treatment as
the Indian had received had been the
cause of all tie trouble and the speaker
hoped that Christians all over would
, take up the subject and see that the
, present law was carried out.
, After the benediction quite q number
J enrolled az members of the society.